The colonnaded axes define the visitor's experience of many of the great cities of the Roman East. How did this extraordinarily bold tool of urban planning evolve? The street, instead of remaining a mundane passage, a convenient means of passing from one place to another, was in the course of little more than a century transformed in the Eastern provinces into a monumental landscape which could in one sweeping vision encompass the entire city. The colonnaded axes became the touchstone by which cities competed for status in the Eastern Empire. Though adopted as a sign of cities' prosperity under the Pax Romana, they were not particularly 'Roman' in their origin. Rather, they reflected the inventiveness, fertility of ideas and the dynamic role of civic patronage in the Eastern provinces in the first two centuries under Rome.This study will concentrate on the convergence of ideas behind these great avenues, examining over fifty sites in an attempt to work out the sequence in which ideas developed across a variety of regions-from North Africa around to Asia Minor. It will look at the phenomenon in the context of the consolidation of Roman rule.

Origins of the Colonnaded Streets in the Cities of the Roman East

Literature & Fiction

Burns, Ross

Classics

Oxford University Press

Damascus: A History (Cities of the Ancient World)

This is the first book in English to relate the history of Damascus, bringing out the crucial role the city has played at many points in the region's past. Damascus traces the history of this colourful, significant and complex city through its physical development, from the city's emergence in around 7000 BC through the changing cavalcade of Aramaean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Mongol and French rulers right up to the end of Turkish control in 1918. In Damascus, every layer of the history has built precisely on top of its predecessors for at least three millennia, leaving a detailed archaeological record of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The book looks particularly at the interplay between the western and eastern influences that have provided Damascus with such a rich past, and how this perfectly encapsulates the forces that have played over the Middle East as a whole from the earliest recorded times to the present. Lavishly illustrated, Damascus: A History is a compelling and unique exploration of a fascinating city.

History

Ancient Civilizations

Routledge

Aleppo: A History (Cities of the Ancient World)

Aleppo is one of the longest-surviving cities of the ancient and Islamic Middle East. Until recently it enjoyed a thriving urban life―in particular an active traditional suq, whose origins can be traced across many centuries. Its tangle of streets still follow the Hellenistic grid and above it looms the great Citadel, which contains recently-uncovered remains of a Bronze/Iron Age temple complex, suggesting an even earlier role as a ‘high place’ in the Canaanite tradition. In the Arab Middle Ages, Aleppo was a strongpoint of the Islamic resistance to the Crusader presence. Its medieval Citadel is one of the most dramatic examples of a fortified enclosure in the Islamic tradition. In Mamluk and Ottoman times, the city took on a thriving commercial role and provided a base for the first European commercial factories and consulates in the Levant. Its commercial life funded a remarkable building tradition with some hundreds of the 600 or so officially-declared monuments dating from these eras, and its diverse ethnic mixture, with significant Kurdish, Turkish, Christian and Armenian communities provide a richer layering of influences on the city’s life. In this volume, Ross Burns explores the rich history of this important city, from its earliest history through to the modern era, providing a thorough treatment of this fascinating city history, accessible both to scholarly readers as well as to the general public interested in a factual and comprehensive survey of the city’s past.

Aleppo (Cities of the Ancient World)

1945: The Allies Victorious

Longmeadow Pr.

Understanding Syria Through 40 Monuments: A Story of Survival

How can a nation's archaeological treasures help explain its history, especially one as richly complex as Syria's? Ross Burns chooses 40 among Syria's outstanding range of sites, accompanied by over 200 colour illustrations, to take the reader through the tangled paths of this crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean where numerous world cultures intersected. Given the last 12 years of savage conflict, the author reports too on the plight of many of these monuments, addressing the common but unhelpful assumption that much of the country's archaeological treasures have been 'destroyed'. A better approach is to recognise that Syria's heritage can play a role in the country's recovery and cannot simply be declared a write-off. This is a history which tells us much about how Syria's mixture of traditions defy simplistic categorisation through modern definitions of cultures and identities.

Middle East

I.B.Tauris

How can a nation's archaeological treasures help explain its history, especially one as richly complex as Syria's? Ross Burns chooses 40 among Syria's outstanding range of sites to take the reader through the tangled paths of this crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean where numerous world cultures intersected. Given the last 12 years of savage conflict, the author reports too on the plight of many of these monuments, addressing the common but unhelpful assumption that much of the country's archaeological treasures have been 'destroyed'. A better approach is to recognise that Syria's heritage can play a role in the country's recovery and cannot simply be declared a write-off. This is a history which tells us much about how Syria's mixture of traditions defy simplistic categorisation through modern definitions of cultures and identities.

A fascinating visual account of the war from Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939 to the Japanese surrender in 1945. Over 600 photographs are fully captioned and indexed.

The World War II Album

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Book Sales

A comprehensive photographic record of every land, sea, and air campaign. Over 600 photographs and paintings are supported by informative and carefully-researched captions.

The World War I Album

Military

Ancient Syria has one of the richest cultures outside Egypt, with particularly impressive and virtually unspoiled remains from the Byzantine period and the time of the Crusades. An encyclopedic survey of Syria's ancient monuments, this guidebook takes the traveller through Syria's turbulent history, linking the sites to events and historical figures.
Supplementary notes on the history and architectural influences are given for all the main sites and monuments, along with an explanation of the main architectural and foreign language term, alternative place names, and indications of the level of interest.

Monuments of Syria: A Historical Guide

History & Criticism

NYU Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Burns, Ross. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Burns, Ross

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Burns, Ross. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Origins of the Colonnaded Streets in the Cities of the Roman East

Damascus: A History (Cities of the Ancient World)

Damascus: A History (Cities of the Ancient World)

Aleppo (Cities of the Ancient World)

1945: The Allies Victorious

Understanding Syria Through 40 Monuments: A Story of Survival

Understanding Syria Through 40 Monuments: A Story of Survival

The World War II Album

The World War I Album

Monuments of Syria: A Historical Guide